Former Manson family member and convicted murderer Patricia Krenwinkel listens to the ruling denying her parole in Jan. 20, 2011. (Reed Saxon/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

A Charles Manson follower and longest-serving female inmate in the California prison system has been denied parole after nearly 50 years behind bars.

Patricia Krenwinkel in August 1971 was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder in the Manson family's notorious 1969 massacre which left seven people dead. The victims included Folger coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring and pregnant actress Sharon Tate, who was married to director Roman Polanski.

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Krenwinkelwent before the parole board after it spent the last six months investigating whether the 69-year-old killer was suffering from "Intimate Partner Battery" — typically referred to as "battered wife syndrome" — when she committed the crimes.

A parole hearing for Krenwinkel was suspended in December 2016 after her lawyer, Keith Wattley, made the abuse claims. He had said he felt encouraged by the fact that the board is looking into the matter before the board denied parole early Thursday afternoon.

The 'Manson Family' murders

Krenwinkel claims she met Manson was she a 19-year-old secretary, adding that she both feared and loved him.

During her court testimony she explained how she stabbed Folger 28 times and how she later wrote "Death to Pigs" on a wall with the blood of another one of her victims, Rosemary LaBianca.

She was 21-years-old when the days-long killing spree unfolded, and has been denied parole 13 times since.

Patricia Krenwinkel was 21 years old when she committed a series of murders alongside notorious cult leader, Charles Manson. (HANDOUT/REUTERS)

Family of the victims — Tate's sister, Sebring's nephew and the grandson of LaBianca — told CNN they intend to fight any affirmative parole recommendations.

"She could have cut and run any time," Debra Tate told the station. "She did it (the murders) because she enjoyed it.

Krenwinkel's last parole hearing was in 2011. She was initially sentenced to death in 1971, but it was commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional the following year.